Save Me the Waltz: A Modern Spin on a Classic Prohibition Cocktail

In honor of Amazon’s new original series, Z: The Beginning of Everything, based on the colorful life of Zelda Fitzgerald, we decided to reimagine some of the classic cocktails imbibed during the glitz and glamor of the Jazz Age. It was during this time that Zelda met F. Scott and their tumultuous relationship took flight. We tasked prohibition-cocktail-expert bartender Lucinda Sterling to craft three cocktails worthy of this era, and the spicy literary lovebirds who loved to drink. Below is a video and recipe for the original cocktail Save the Last Waltz, the name of which was inspired by the novel of the same name published by Zelda Fitzgerald herself.

Save Me The Waltz

Ingredients:

1.5 ounces gin

3/4 ounce St. George raspberry liqueur

1/2 ounce orgeat

1/2 ounce fresh lemon juice

2 dashes orange bitters

Egg white (approx 1 ounce)

Club soda

Directions:

1. Take large shaker tin and place an egg separator securely on top 2. Crack a medium sized egg into the separator and let gravity remove the white from the yolk. 3. During this time, add the remaining ingredients using a jigger to the small shaker tin in the following order: Orange bitters, lemon juice, orgeat, raspberry liqueur, gin 4. Combine ingredients from small shaker tin carefully into the large shaker tin with the egg 5. Shake ingredients without ice until whipped and integrated 6. Remove the small tin from the large tin, place shaking ice into the small tin 7. Carefully introduce the ice and small tin back into the large shaker 8. Start shaking slowly 9. Once the tins are significantly cold to the touch, remove the small tin from the large tin, and use a Hawthorne strainer to strain the ingredients into a fizz glass 10. Add club soda to the fizz glass 11. Garnish with a fresh lemon wedge

Note: Traditionally prepared cocktails from the earlier part of the century regularly used egg whites or yolks, or both, as ingredients in sours, fizzes and flips.